"A new way of printing?" Topic

Nothing like a good title, eh?

One thing I haven't seen, while not looking into 3d printing, is an endless print. Is it yet a thing?

By endless print I mean, a print head that goes up, or base that goes down, infinitely. So it makes a continuous print. Once the initial limit is reached (1-2 Meters??) The string of prints could be layed on a conveyor belt. You just pull/clip them off by the Meter for later clipping apart properly.

You could endlessly print thousands of figures this way. Also means no time mucking with print bed, except just to begin, meaning you save time and money.

I know I'm smart, but someone must be doing this, or something similar, already? It's the only way I can see printing ever hoping to be used for proper production.

Look up belt printers! It's a thing.

Yeah, I think that's half what I'm talking about.

I thought print beds were an issue, as they need replacing with use or something? A belt printer seems to use the conveyor as a print bed, so wouldn't it need replacing?

Also what about build up of stray material? Jams, so on? Looks great in the time lapse video, but there's obviously thing going on, such as spool changes.

Also they print 45degrees angle. Not sure if that's an issue, but I could imagine sagging??

I can definitely imagine ware and tear on the belt.

Well if you are suggesting a machine that runs forever without maintenance..there is no such thing in the universe.

Is that an oxymoron?

No, I'm not suggesting that.

I'm suggesting a printer with no print bed

You mean one of these? Concept sounds interesting but what about the issues you mention ?
link

For resin based machines, something like this would likely need a handling system to prevent the "pull/clip" operation from knocking out of alignment that portion of the assembly string that is still hanging in the resin. Presuming the machine is still using gravity to keep the resin flat and level in its tank. I'm using resin as an example because it is so commonly used for home machines.

Most likely, any gains from making something in two meter long strings would be lost by the high cost of the handling system. Plus, the string itself might start to cure unevenly in the open air and start to pull the lower edge off to one side, thereby distorting the models further down the line. Just a thought… interesting idea.